1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to apparatus for treating upright surfaces, for example ship hulls, silo walls, oil storage tanks and the like, with cleansers (e.g., water, detergents) and conserving materials (e.g., paint).
2. The Prior Art
Structures of the type mentioned above are usually made of steel and their surfaces are therefore subject to damage from corrosion. To prevent this, these surfaces are coated with corrosion preventing media--such as paint or the like--which protect them. Before this can be done, however, the surfaces must be thoroughly cleaned--e.g., by washing--because otherwise the corrosion preventing media are not able to properly fulfill their intended purpose.
To manually effect such cleaning is extremely time-consuming, labor-intensive and hence costly. Equipment has therefore been developed for this purpose.
These devices have a carriage which travels horizontally along a support extending along the surface to be cleaned. For example, in the case of a ship.
The supply of water to these working devices is effected via water hoses, as is customary in many other types of applications also. However, in the kinds of applications with which the present invention is concerned, and particularly in dockyard use, the working conditions are very severe and such water hoses are subjected to an extraordinary degree of wear and/or accidental damage. As a result, frequent interruptions of the water supply are experienced, and since this means interruptions in the operation of the expensive surface cleaning equipment it reflects directly--and unfavorably--on the economy of operation. Especially in the case of dockyard operations, where the equipment is usually required to be able to travel the whole length of the dock, the shortest length possible for the water supply hoses is equal to half the length of the dock. Hoses of such length are difficult to handle and their replacement with new ones in the event of damage requires a relatively long time, during which the personnel manning the cleaning equipment can only stand idly by and watch.